I was born Halloween 1956 at Providence Hospital downtown, left-handed and dyslexic. Thirteen years of Anchorage public schools: Chugach (pre-optional, third grade twice), Central Junior High and West Anchorage High School preceded admission to Dartmouth. I fully expected the Eastern elite preppies would eat my lunch, the opposite occurred.
I then entered the four-year Washington, Wyoming, Alaska Montana and Idaho (WWAMI) program, Alaska’s medical school, in Fairbanks. Then, after a one-year internship, I served four years as a commissioned officer in the Alaskan Indian Health Service in Barrow, Bethel and the old Alaska Native Medical Center on Third Avenue. Following a four-year residency in orthopedic surgery, I returned to practice in Anchorage in 1992. Except for three months of mission work in Uganda, Liberia and Kenya, my post-graduate surgical and research career has been within the boundaries of this magnificent state.
On June 22, I gave a TED talk on cobalt poisoning by joint replacement, a previously unrecognized problem that I found to be common in my patients. Eight million Americans with cobalt-chrome joint replacement parts are at risk. Why me and not the Mayo Clinic? I credit my 17 years of Alaska education and my first four years of Alaska post-graduate medical-surgical experience. Most critically, my unfunded research into the premature failure of joint replacement devices is supported by the University of Alaska and Alaska’s medical school, where I am an affiliated (unpaid) professor.
Alaska was not a wealthy state during the years from 1966-1983, yet it granted me immense primary, secondary and post-graduate educational opportunity. It grieves me that my grandchildren will not enjoy similar advantages unless the governor and the Legislature can reach some form of compromise to ensure our Alaskan primary, secondary, university and post-graduate opportunities remain competitive with the “Outside.”
— Dr. Stephen S. Tower
Anchorage
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